You wouldn’t expect a sweet, talented and rising singer-songwriter like Ann Vriend to be living in the heart of Edmonton’s treacherous inner-city limits. But this girl is no regular indie popster! This, I discovered within seconds of hearing her new disc, For the People In the Meantime. Ann has taken inspiration from her rugged surroundings, from the classics, from scripture, you name it – and has amalgamated it to the musical influences of her youth like an alchemist in her lab. Her latest offering is soaked in heady rhythm and blues harkening back to the 70s. From the first notes of the opening track, “Long Road” to the closing track, “Long Road II”, her intensity is unapologetic, energetic and vividly engaging. Yet she holds her position of looking in from the outside: “It’s a long road to heaven”, she sings in the book-end tracks, “So let me know how it goes/’Cause I’m still here on this side”. She draws sharp edges from her subject matter but packages the whole as funky R&B, combining modern urban complexities with old school back beats and rhythms. Perfect summer tunes for patio party in the `hood. Will her neighbours agree? You decide!